A widower's entertainment

Chapter 54 [The unexpected discovery of a mathematician] (seeking for further reading)
  Bao City, Ninth Middle School.

"One for one, one for two for two..."

"One nine makes nine, two ninety-eight, three nine twenty-seven, four nine..."

Although the Ninth Middle School is a middle school in Bao City, the primary school is also here, so naturally there will be primary school students learning to memorize the multiplication table.

Two people were standing outside the classroom, listening to the children inside reciting the multiplication tables.

The old man's cheeks were sunken, and he was as thin as a scrawny zombie. Coupled with the howling northwest wind, it seemed as if he was drifting from hell, but his eyes were shining. Bright and energetic, with a sense of energy and a smile on his face.

"Eight-nine-seventy-two, nine-nine-eighty-one."

The old man couldn't help but recite it, and asked the man next to him: "Teacher Lin, do you know how long the Jiujiu Watch has been around?"

"this?"

The man called Teacher Lin was stunned for a moment by the question and said, "It must have been a long time."

The old man smiled and said: "The nine-nine table has existed for at least three thousand years. It has been used in calculations since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. In the Ming Dynasty, it was improved and used on the abacus. Now the nine-nine table is also a basic arithmetic skill in primary school students."

"Yes, Mr. Lu, you understand clearly."

Teacher Lin looked at the old man with respect. In his heart, the old man in front of him was worthy of his respect and the respect of everyone.

You must know that Mr. Lu in front of you only has a junior high school diploma. He was admitted to the Department of Physics of Northeast Normal University through self-study. For the next four years, he has been studying the world-wide mathematical problem Kirkman. After graduation, when he was assigned to teach at No. 9 Middle School in Bao City, Successfully solved this problem that has plagued the world for hundreds of years.

Unfortunately, although I sent the four years of hard work to the Academy of Sciences, it was rejected. I submitted it to the Journal of Mathematics, but it was still returned. The reply was that the paper was too long, and it was recommended to submit it to other publications. Then I cut the original paper into four paragraphs and submitted it to Mathematics Bulletin, but the reply was four words: of no value.

Until later, the Italians took the lead in announcing that they had solved the Kirkman problem, solemnly announcing to the world that this would be something that the Italians would always be proud of.

Mr. Lu took the newspaper and read it over and over again, checking the time on it repeatedly. If he could have published it ten years ago, there would have been no Italian issues.

This is a true mute eating Coptidis chinensis, unable to express the pain.

It is really hard for Teacher Lin to imagine what would happen if such a thing happened to him.

After that, Mr. Lu decided to attack another peak of combinatorial mathematics, the Steiner series of problems, which is a world-wide mathematical problem as famous as the Debach conjecture studied by Chen Jingrun.

In this way, Mr. Lu started the craziest work mode in his life, teaching during the day and doing scientific research at night. In order to save time, he even chose not to sleep.

But even so, I was too busy to cope with all the tasks. I asked the school to reduce some of the burden, but was rejected. In order to better explore his potential, Mr. Lu applied to be transferred to university, but unfortunately, he did not find any way.

It is really hard for Teacher Lin to imagine how Mr. Lu could overcome and complete the Steiner series of papers on world problems when a border town like Bao City has almost no scientific research resources.

It was really unimaginable, but Mr. Lu did it again just like that, solving another world-wide mathematical problem.

However, Mr. Lu submitted three papers to domestic mathematics journals, but unfortunately they failed to attract attention until he later sent them to authoritative American mathematics journals. The six papers were like six heavy bombs, causing an uproar in Western academic circles.

Ironically, it was only this year that Mr. Lu was able to stand on the podium of domestic academic conferences only on the recommendation of foreign professors.

Thinking of all that Mr. Lu has gone through, Teacher Lin is really in awe.

The old man known as Mr. Lu waved his hand and motioned to move forward and not to disturb other teachers in class.

Teacher Lin took Mr. Lu forward and talked about other things while walking. "Mr. Lu, have you read the novel "The Devotion of Suspect X"?"

Mr. Lu shook his head and said, "I don't read novels."

Teacher Lin nodded and said: "Mr. Lu, I'm telling you, what is "The Devotion of Suspect It’s ridiculous, it’s too much!”

When Mr. Lu heard this, although he felt it was a bit inappropriate, he had experienced too much and had already looked away. He couldn't help but smile and said, "It's just literary creation. It's okay. Don't take it too seriously."

When Teacher Lin heard what Mr. Lu said, he frowned and said, "You can't write randomly in literary creation, and write about Euler's conjecture."

"Which Euler conjecture?"

"For every integer greater than n, the sum of any n-1 positive integers raised to powers is not the nth power of some positive integer?"

As a mathematician, Mr. Lu has been dealing with mathematics all his life, so he naturally knows Euler's conjecture.

Teacher Lin shook his head and said: "This is Euler's conjecture, but it is written in the novel that when n ≥ 4, the equation: X^n+ Y^n+ Z^n= W^n, has no solution."

"He self-righteously gave a counterexample."

"Counterexample? Have you calculated it?"

"No."

Teacher Lin shook his head and said: "He is just a writer who wrote the numbers casually, and I am going to calculate it. Besides, how can Euler's conjecture be so easy to prove?"

Mr. Lu shook his head and said nothing.

However, he was a little curious about what that counterexample would be like?
  Out of curiosity, Mr. Lu asked his colleagues to find that issue of "Novel Monthly" for him and wanted to read this story about a mathematician.

"Mr. Lu, I didn't expect you to read this novel "The Devotion of Suspect X". This novel is very exciting."

When Mr. Lu heard this, he smiled.

What interested him was not the novel, but the counterexample to Euler's conjecture in the novel.

However, Mr. Lu had no explanation for this. He found Lin Youcheng's novel just out of curiosity about the counterexample.

He doesn't find it troublesome, nor does he worry about difficult calculations.

Mr. Lu looked at this novel written by Lin Youcheng and saw that the once-in-a-century math genius Shi Hong was also a middle school teacher. He couldn't help but feel that it was a coincidence, but he didn't pay much attention to it and just read on.

Mr. Lu didn't pay much attention to crime and love stories. All he cared about was mathematics.

He particularly noticed the mathematical answer that Shi Hong briefly mentioned in Lin Youcheng's pen——

2682440^4+ 15365639^4+ 187960^4= 20615673^4
  Looking at this string of numbers, just for a moment, Mr. Lu's eyes lit up with this math question that was difficult to calculate in the eyes of other math teachers.

　Here I have slightly changed Mr. Lu’s final timeline, just like this butterfly flapping its wings.

　　Pay tribute to the most heartbreaking genius, Chinese mathematician Lu Jiaxi. If you are interested, you can search it. He is a mathematician and a middle school teacher!
  　　
  　
  (End of this chapter)